Monday, July 10, 2017

Spanish Ghost Sets (Part 6)

The Spanish Spaghetti Western ghost town where abandoned
Hollywood film sets are still standing in the desert almost 50 years on

Despite forming huge chunk of Western film history, these
amazing photographs show the iconic spots in ruin

Spaghetti Western was initially handed down as a
derogatory term for low-budget films directed by Italians

Over time it became a badge of honour thanks to conveyor
belt of talent like Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood

But despite its iconic status within the Western film
world, many deserted sets have been left to rot in Spain

The Spanish Spaghetti Western ghost town where abandoned
Hollywood film sets are still standing in the desert almost 50 years on

Despite forming huge chunk of Western film history, these
amazing photographs show the iconic spots in ruin

Spaghetti Western was initially handed down as a
derogatory term for low-budget films directed by Italians

Over time it became a badge of honour thanks to conveyor
belt of talent like Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood

But despite its iconic status within the Western film
world, many deserted sets have been left to rot in Spain

The Spanish Spaghetti Western ghost town where abandoned
Hollywood film sets are still standing in the desert almost 50 years on

Despite forming huge chunk of Western film history, these
amazing photographs show the iconic spots in ruin

Spaghetti Western was initially handed down as a
derogatory term for low-budget films directed by Italians

Over time it became a badge of honour thanks to conveyor
belt of talent like Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood

But despite its iconic status within the Western film
world, many deserted sets have been left to rot in Spain

Top Spaghetti
Westerns

This is the definitive top 10 Spaghetti Western films
according to the Spaghetti Western Database:

1) The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Sergio Leone (1966):
This lengthy western is held by most to be the Spaghetti Western. The three-way
show down between Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach is legendary.

2) Once Upon a Time in The West, Sergio Leone (1968):
Made to be the spaghetti western to end all spaghetti westerns, Leone turned
Henry Fonda into a badboy and cast Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale and Jason
Robards.

3) For a Few Dollars More, Sergio Leone (1965): Clint
Eastwood returns as the man with no name, in one of the most exciting
representatives of the genre and the map that cemented Sergio Leone as the king
of spaghetti western.

4) The Great Silence, Sergio Corbucci (1968): Its gloomy,
wintery setting, the grim violence add to the atmosphere of this famous western
by the other Sergio, starring Klaus Kinski as the villain and Jean-Louis
Trintignant as the mute anti-hero.

5) A Fistful of Dollars, Sergio Leone (1964): This is
where it all started, the movie that got the ball rolling. Leone's remake of
Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo put the then unknown TV actor Clint Eastwood on the
map and established his style and the use of extraordinary music by Ennio
Morricone.

6) Django, Sergio Corbucci (1966): Violence is a
trademark of the genre. Corbucci upped the anti with ears bitten off priests
and citizens slaughtered with a machine gun, but the skilled pistolero with the
army coat and the coffin are what makes this a cult favorite.

7) The Big Gundown, Sergio Sollima (1966): This is one of
three spaghetti westerns of the third Sergio, pitting Lee Van Cleef against
genre stalwart Tomas Milian in a cat and mouse hunt that ends as epic as could
be, with one of the most remarkable opening credit theme songs ever recorded.

8) The Mercenary, Sergio Corbucci (1968): This cult film
with Franco Nero in one of his greatest roles has an unforgettable soundtrack
by Ennio Morricone and stars the late Jack Palance at his best.

9) Companeros, Sergio Corbucci (1970): This is Corbucci's
second revolutionary tale next to The Mercenary, and it is somewhat of a
modification of it, again starring Franco Nero but this time with Tomas Milian
in the role of the peasant.

10) Death Rides a Horse, Giulio Petroni (1967):
Gunslinger mentor and trainee, a very popular theme in the genre, here depicted
by Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law, with a beautifully haunting score by
Ennio Morricone.

A photographer has spent the last decade documenting the
remains of Hollywood movie sets in Spain.

Mark Parascandola, from Washington, DC, in the United
States, has been revisiting a forgotten era of Hollywood in Almeria to capture
the legacy of movie sets used in films throughout the 1960s and 70s.

Remarkably, some of these movie sets remain preserved in
the deserts almost 50 years on.

'As a photographer, I was initially drawn to the
locations for similar reasons filmmakers have been drawn here over the years,'
said Mr Parascandola, whose grandparents lived in Almeria before moving to New
York in 1930s.

'The amazing landscapes and quality of light. I also
became fascinated by these old film sets and locations as a different kind of
'ghost town'.

Unlike real ghost towns, the Western movie sets were
never really inhabited.

'They are a fiction, constructed solely for the movies.

'They were not meant to be permanent, but somehow they
have endured in the desert for half a century.'

Films such as Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia and Sergio
Leone's spaghetti westerns were all filmed in purpose built sets in the area.

Almeria was on the verge of becoming the next Hollywood
with stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Clint Eastwood
filming in the city.

The Hollywood push was part of a massive public relations
campaign from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to change the world's image
of Spain.

Over the last few years, Mr Parascandola has regularly
been visiting Almeria to meet with people who had friends and family who worked
on the sets, whether that be constructing them, starring as an extra or
chauffeuring the stars.

Mr Parascandola said: 'The Western towns built by Sergio
Leone and others were not meant to be accurate representations of the American
West. Instead, they were constructed to meet filmmakers' vision of what the
American West was like.

'The Spaghetti Western has been described as a myth of a
myth, because it is one step further removed from the myth of the original
Hollywood Westerns.

'However, this myth of a myth has come to shape our own
modern ideas about the historical West.

'Additionally, the films created a fictional image of
Spain. Bringing the film industry to Spain during this period was part of
dictator Francisco Franco's effort to change the image of Spain to the rest of
the world, to promote tourism and show Spain as a country not only with
beautiful landscapes, a grand history, and colourful traditions, but also as a
modern country that could compete with the rest of Europe.

'However, the version of Spain displayed to tourists and
movie audiences was a fiction, free of the very physical and harsh realities of
the time.'

Mr Parascandola plans to publish a forgotten part of
Spain's Hollywood history in a book titled 'Once Upon a Time in Almeria'.

He recently launched a campaign on Indiegogo in order to
highlight Spain's movie heritage and the beauty of the desert setting.

The 49-year-old has also witnessed a number of sets
decay, while others have been turned into tourist attractions.

Mr Parascandola said: 'Unfortunately these old movie sets
are being lost. While a few are maintained for tourism, others have been left
to decay.

'As I have been working on this project, the remains of
the Nueva Frontera town have entirely collapsed, leaving only a pile of rubble.

'The set had originally been constructed for the film
Chino with Charles Bronson and was later used, in its decaying state, by Alex
Cox for Straight to Hell.

'My favourite film set is the fort from the movie El
Condor with Jim Brown and Lee Van Cleef.

'The original fort set was enormous.

'But the sections that remain, including walls and a
watchtower built into the hillside, are still impressive.

'The fort appeared over the years in several films,
including Blindman (1971) with Ringo Starr, A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die
(1972), and Conan the Barbarian.

'Tourism has helped to save some of the western town
sets.

'But I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this.

'While it is great to see the town that appeared in For a
Few Dollars More still standing, the fresh coat of paint, piped in music, and
general theme park atmosphere seems to be missing something of the original.'

Once Upon a Time in Almeria is due to be published by
Daylight Books in the fall 2017.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.